Judge defends 30-day sentence for girl's rape

8/28/2013

ASSOCIATED PRESS

BILLINGS, Mont. — A Montana judge who sentenced a former teacher to 30 days for raping a 14-year-old girl is standing by his comments that the girl was older than her “chronological age” when it came to sexual matters.

But District Judge G. Todd Baugh says that doesn’t make 54-year-old Stacey Rambold’s actions any less of a crime. The girl killed herself in February 2010 while the case was pending.

In handing down the sentence Monday, Baugh said the girl was “older than her chronological age” and “as much in control of the situation” as the teacher.

Baugh tells the Billings Gazette a 14-year-old girl can’t consent, but this situation was not a “forcible beat-up rape.”

He says the girl’s death also complicated the county attorney’s case.

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